Wonderland Burlesque's The 12 Days Before Xmas: Day Nine / I Want To Come Home For Christmas - Marvin Gaye

Wonderland Burlesque's

The 12 Days Before Xmas: Day Nine

I Want To Come Home For Christmas - Marvin Gaye

The holidays are frequently viewed as a time of second chances and new birth.

Imagine a song sitting on a shelf for 18 years, only to see the light of day after one of the creative entities has passed away?

Such is the case with today's holiday selection.

 I Want to Come Home for Christmas is a song written by Forest Hairston and Marvin Gaye. 

The impetus for the song came after Hairston came upon pictures of people tying yellow ribbons around trees in honor of P.O.W.s, those missing in action and all the troops fighting the Vietnam War. As Hairston was working on the song, his friend, Marvin Gaye stopped by. When asked what he was working on, Hairston mentioned the song and Gaye immediately became intrigued. He'd told Hairston in the past that he wanted a holiday song to call his own. Hairston began playing what he'd written and mid-song, Gaye stopped him. The two then naturally began working together on it, with Gaye contributing melody and harmony parts.

A short time later, Gaye took the song and went to Motown Recording Studios which had at that point relocated to Los Angeles. Producing the track himself, Gaye finished the recording in one take. Later, he returned to Hairston's apartment and played the recording. Hairston was overjoyed with what he heard, hugged Gaye and began singing the man's praises, which made Gaye laugh. 

The song was scheduled to be part of a holiday-themed album by Gaye. It was, in fact, assigned  number T-323L in the Tamla catalog and scheduled for release in late 1972. However, as frequently was the case, relations between Gaye and the powers that be at Motown Records, the label which oversaw Tamala releases, quickly turned quite prickly. Gaye wanted to release I Want to Come Home for Christmas as a single, for the troops fighting overseas in the Vietnam War. Motown, fearful of creating controversy, steadfastly refused, which  only served to further increase tensions between the artist and the label. 

 

Eighteen years after its recording and six years after Gaye's untimely death, the song appeared on a compilation album, The Marvin Gaye Collection and as a bonus track on a reissue of a various artists compilation, A Motown Christmas. 

Critics declared the song a "masterpiece" and it became hugely popular during the Iraq War, as R&B stations began playing it during the holiday season. 

In 2019, the song was also included on the posthumous album, You're The Man.

And Hairston? Well, he finally started getting royalty checks as co-writer of the song.

 

 I Want To Come Home For Christmas - Marvin Gaye